Online Computer Tips Home
Home All Tips OCT Newsletter Free Tutorials Tech News Resources

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Verizon confirms plans to sell Netbooks

Verizon Wireless has confirmed earlier reports that it's ready to enter the Netbook market. Spokeswoman Brenda Raney, who was quoted to a similar effect in an Internetnews.com story Friday, said Saturday that the plan is for the company to start selling 3G-enabled Netbooks by the end of the second quarter, or by June.

Unfortunately, Raney could offer little else in the way of details regarding pricing or potential PC partners. Crave's Erica Ogg suggested Dell would be an obvious partnering candidate. Dell already has a relationship with Verizon parent company Vodafone, which has sold Dell Netbooks in Europe since September 2008. However, a similar rumor floated around the Web last week regarding HP hooking up with Verizon.

Verizon's chief rival, AT&T, already sells Acer Netbooks for $99 with service through RadioShack, and also sells Dell Mini Inspirons through the wireless provider's Web site.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Internet Explorer 8's Poor Reception Not a Good Sign For Microsoft

Just days after the browser's big debut, IE 8's market share has fallen a full 28 percent from its peak. Alternative browsers, meanwhile, have held steady ground, losing no significant number of users to Microsoft's new offering.

IE 8 managed to break the 2% mark within a day of its release last Thursday, according to tracking data by analytics firm Net Applications. It grew slowly over the weekend, topping out at 2.59% of the overall browser market at 3 a.m. Sunday. From there, things started heading downhill. With a steady decline, Internet Explorer 8 dropped down to 1.86 percent of the market by Monday morning.

The results shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise. Internet Explorer has been losing market share consistently for months now. In February, Microsoft's overall slice of the pie slipped to 67.44 percent, down .11 percent from the previous month.

Full Story

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Internet Explorer 8 Ignores One Third Of The Market

With today's release of Internet Explorer 8, everyone who use Microsoft's browser will be getting some much-needed improvements but it may not be as fast as its competitors, according to early reports.

But speed is really everything. Without speed, all the other features fall by the wayside. If you look at Internet Explorer's market share, it has steadily been eroded over the past few years by its faster rivals Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera.

Microsoft is doing what it always does: focusing on its massive installed base of users and ignoring the rest. If you've already left IE for a speedier browser, IE8 is not going to bring you back, and Microsoft knows it. IE may still hold 67% of the browser market, according to Net Apps, but that share is declining. Firefox claims 22%, Safari has 8%, and Chrome has captured 1%.

Full Story

Monday, March 16, 2009

Number of People Using Mobile Devices Doubles

ComScore reports that the number of people using their mobile devices on a daily basis to access news and other information more than doubled between January 2008 and January 2009, to 22.4 million.

The number of people using their mobile devices to access online news and other information on a daily basis is rising sharply.

Between January 2008 and January 2009, the number of people who used their devices every day more than doubled, from 10.8 million to 22.4 million.

Some 8.2 million users downloaded maps, making that the most popular downloadable application; about 14.1 million users utilized their SMS-based news and information access for search, making that the most-favored use.

Full Story

Friday, March 06, 2009

Windows 7 Will Have IE 8 On-Off Switch

Microsoft said the upcoming public release candidate of Windows 7 will include the ability turn off Internet Explorer 8, which is the target of antitrust charges.

The option will be available through a control panel called "Windows Features," which will allow IE 8 to be turned off. The feature does not uninstall the browser. Instead, it deletes the IE 8 executable file "iexplore.exe." All other components remain, and the browser can be turned back on through the same panel.

The governing body could require Microsoft to distribute Windows in the European Union without IE, or offer an installation screen that gives consumers a choice of which browser to install. It's too soon to say whether Microsoft's latest move will satisfy the EC.

Full Story

Monday, March 02, 2009

Windows Market Share Rises Slightly; Mac Drops

The market share of Microsoft's Windows OS crept up every so slightly in February to 88.42 percent as Apple's Mac took a dip, according to data released by Net Applications.

Microsoft Windows inched up about 0.20 percentage points, from 88.2 percent in January to 88.42 percent last month. Apple's Mac, meanwhile, dropped from 9.93 percent to 9.61 percent over the last two months.

Compared to the same time last year, Windows has decreased slightly while Mac has had some gains. In February 2008, Windows had 90.67 percent market share, while Mac had 8.03 percent, and Linux had 0.76 percent.

Most Windows users, or about 64 percent, are still using XP while about 23 percent have upgraded to Vista. On the Mac front, about 6 percent are using the Mac OS X 10.5 and nearly 3 percent are on 10.4. A small amount - 1.35 percent - are still plugging away with Windows 2000.

Full Story